IMMIGRATION AND INTEGRATION (2)

Immigration and integration are back on the Danish political agenda. All of the political parties hold so-called summer meetings in August, usually in nice seaside hotels, where they come with new proposals and fly kites, before the new Parliamentary season starts in the autumn.

The kite flyer this time was the right-of-centre Venstre, the country's largest political party led by Lars Løkke Rasmussen, former Prime Minister and likely Prime Minister after the next general election, which must be held before September 2015. They would like to ease the so-called "24-year rule", whereby spouses who come from non-E.U. countries have to be 24 years old before they are given the right to permanent residence in Denmark; in the case of non-E.U. couples wishing to come and live in Denmark, both must be 24, and at least one of them must have a good job. The proposed easing would come from abolishing the 24-year rule in some instances, and drastically reducing the income threshold in others.

A more liberal immigration regime is normally something I would support. But here comes the sting in the tail. The easing would apply to mainly Western countries such as the U.S. and Australia; for poor countries with lots of black and brown people and/or a different religion (Pakistan, for instance), the 24-year rule would remain. Indeed, the income threshold would actually be increased.

Venstre "justify" this proposal on the grounds that people from America and Australia are more like Danes and so are more likely to integrate into Danish society. In my view, this is complete tosh. Blanket descriptions of a person on the basis of national economic indicators, religion or ethnicity are a terrible indicator of whether that person will or will not integrate (as an example, my integration capabilities have nothing to do with the fact that I was baptised an Anglican, come originally from the U.K and went bust in Africa before I arrived). Fortunately, since it is highly unlikely that Venstre will be able to form a post-election government without the support of other parties, the policy is not likely to be put into practice.

Nevertheless, it gives a strong signal to the wider world that Denmark is not interested in welcoming non-white, non-Christian people. Sadly, that was probably Venstre's express purpose.  

Walter Blotscher